Beyond traditional ecological restoration on the Colorado Plateau

Winkler, Daniel E.; Backer, Dana M.; Belnap, Jayne; Bradford, John B.; Butterfield, Bradley J.; Copeland, Stella M.; Duniway, Michael C.; Faist, Akasha M.; Fick, Stephen E.; Jensen, Scott; Kramer, Andrea L T; Mann, Rebecca K.; Massatti, Rob; McCormick, Molly; Munson, Seth M.; Olwell, Peggy; Parr, Steve D.; Pfennigwerth, Alix A.; Pilmanis, Adrienne M.; Richardson, Bryce A.; Samuel, Ella; See, Kathy; Young, Kristina E.; Reed, Sasha C.

doi:10.1111/rec.12876

Cited by 25 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…Our research sites are located in the Colorado Plateau Desert in southeastern Utah (Figure 1). The Colorado Plateau Desert is one of North America's five major deserts and encompasses nearly 340,000 km 2 of land in Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona (Schwinning, Belnap, Bowling, & Ehleringer, 2008;Winkler, Backer, et al, 2018). The climate is characterized as a cold, arid to semiarid dryland, with a wide variety of soil types and associated plant communities, driven primarily by elevation gradients (ranging from 600 to 3,353 m a.s.l.…”

Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Shrub persistence and increased grass mortality in response to drought in dryland systems

Winkler

Belnap

Hoover

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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Droughts in the southwest United States have led to major forest and grassland die‐off events in recent decades, suggesting plant community and ecosystem shifts are imminent as native perennial grass populations are replaced by shrub‐ and invasive plant‐dominated systems. These patterns are similar to those observed in arid and semiarid systems around the globe, but our ability to predict which species will experience increased drought‐induced mortality in response to climate change remains limited. We investigated meteorological drought‐induced mortality of nine dominant plant species in the Colorado Plateau Desert by experimentally imposing a year‐round 35% precipitation reduction for eight continuous years. We distributed experimental plots across numerous plant, soil, and parent material types, resulting in 40 distinct sites across a 4,500 km2 region of the Colorado Plateau Desert. For all 8 years, we tracked c. 400 individual plants and evaluated mortality responses to treatments within and across species, and through time. We also examined the influence of abiotic and biotic site factors in driving mortality responses. Overall, high mortality trends were driven by dominant grass species, including Achnatherum hymenoides, Pleuraphis jamesii, and Sporobolus cryptandrus. Responses varied widely from year to year and dominant shrub species were generally resistant to meteorological drought, likely due to their ability to access deeper soil water. Importantly, mortality increased in the presence of invasive species regardless of treatment, and native plant die‐off occurred even under ambient conditions, suggesting that recent climate changes are already negatively impacting dominant species in these systems. Results from this long‐term drought experiment suggest major shifts in community composition and, as a result, ecosystem function. Patterns also show that, across multiple soil and plant community types, native perennial grass species may be replaced by shrubs and invasive annuals in the Colorado Plateau Desert.

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Section: Study Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Shrub persistence and increased grass mortality in response to drought in dryland systems

Winkler

Belnap

Hoover

et al. 2019

Global Change Biology

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“…As restoration needs for natural landscapes increase due to more frequent and/or larger disturbances, the establishment of invasive species, and impacts resulting from climate change (Suding ; Winkler et al ; see also UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, http://www.unenvironment.org), considerable time and resources are being invested to guide the development and deployment of native plant materials (NPMs) for priority restoration species. While there are species for which knowledge of genetic differentiation and adaptation are available to inform restoration practices (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of population genetics and climatic variability can refine climate‐informed seed transfer guidelines

Massatti

Shriver

Winkler

et al. 2020

Restoration Ecology

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Restoration guidelines increasingly recognize the importance of genetic attributes in translocating native plant materials (NPMs). However, when species-specific genetic information is unavailable, seed transfer guidelines use climate-informed seed transfer zones (CSTZs) as an approximation. While CSTZs may improve how NPMs are developed and/or matched to restoration sites, they overlook genetic factors that can diminish restoration success and/or deteriorate natural patterns of genetic diversity and environmental factors that may introduce unexpected variation. Here, we analyze molecular data and geographic patterns of environmental variability across the western United States and demonstrate how they can refine CSTZs. Using genetic data available for 13 relevant plant species, we found that the probability of mixing genetically differentiated individuals (i.e. from different evolutionary lineages, or populations) was approximately 8% when considering locations separated by 50 km and reached nearly 80% by 500 km, which are distances relevant to ecoregionally constrained CSTZs. Furthermore, climate analyses revealed that geographically proximate locations are likely to maintain environmental similarity, regardless of CSTZ or ecoregion assignment. These results suggest constraining CSTZ-informed seed transfer decisions by distance may mitigate the opportunity for negative genetic outcomes. Furthermore, environmental variability and/or specificity of NPMs (depending upon the restoration strategy) should be achieved by sourcing NPMs from geographically proximate locations to avoid introducing excessive genetic differentiation. Our results highlight the utility of combining molecular genetic data with other genetic inferences (i.e. of adaptation) to determine how best to transfer seed across restoration species' ranges and develop new restoration materials.

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“…If experienced across numerous species and drylands, such dynamics would have substantial effects on the strength of the carbon–climate feedback (Poulter et al, ; Wu, Dijkstra, Koch, & Hungate, ). Overall, an outcome with A. hymenoides remaining on the landscape would have more positive implications for land managers and ranchers as well, who depend on the plant as a critical forage source for wildlife and livestock across the western United States (Jones, ; Winkler, Backer, et al, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Earlier plant growth helps compensate for reduced carbon fixation after 13 years of warming

et al. 2019

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Drylands play a dominant role in global carbon cycling and are particularly vulnerable to increasing temperatures, but our understanding of how dryland ecosystems will respond to climatic change remains notably poor. Considering that the area of drylands is projected to increase by 11%–23% by 2,100, understanding the impacts of warming on the functions and services furnished by these arid and semi‐arid ecosystems has numerous implications. In a unique 13‐year ecosystem warming experiment in a south‐western U.S. dryland, we investigated the consequences of rising temperature on Achnatherum hymenoides, a widespread, keystone grass species on the Colorado Plateau. We tracked individual‐ and population‐level responses to identify optimal strategies that may have been masked if considering only one level of plant response. We found several factors combined to affect the timing and magnitude of plant responses during the 13th year of warming. These included large warming‐induced biomass increases for individual plants, an 8.5‐day advancement in the growing season and strong reductions in photosynthetic rates and population cover. Importantly, we observed a lack of photosynthetic acclimation and, thus, a warming‐induced downregulation of photosynthetic rates. However, these physiological responses were concurrent with warmed‐plant increases in growing season length and investment in photosynthetic surfaces, demonstrating the species’ ability to balance carbon fixation limitations with warming. These results, which bring together ecophysiological, phenological, reproductive and morphological assessments of plant responses to warming, suggest that the extent of change in A. hymenoides populations will be based upon numerous adaptive responses that vary in their direction and magnitude. Plant population responses to climatic warming remain poorly resolved, particularly for Earth's drylands, and our in situ experiment assessing multiple strategies offers a novel look into a warmer world. A free Plain Language Summary can be found within the Supporting Information of this article.

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Beyond traditional ecological restoration on the Colorado Plateau

Cited by 25 publications

References 67 publications

Shrub persistence and increased grass mortality in response to drought in dryland systems

Shrub persistence and increased grass mortality in response to drought in dryland systems

Assessment of population genetics and climatic variability can refine climate‐informed seed transfer guidelines

Earlier plant growth helps compensate for reduced carbon fixation after 13 years of warming

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